We make no bones about our appreciation of Frog, the irrepressible (ex-)Queens duo and their dedication to the peculiar side of music. From their self-titled EP and debut full-length Kind of Blah right through to last year’s Whatever We Probably Already Had It, Dan Bateman and Tom White have created their own idiosyncratic lo-fi sound, Americana updated for a contemporary moment of nostalgia, manic volatility and foggy-eyed conviction.
To be co-released by Audio Antihero and Tape Wormies, the fledgling imprint created by Bateman himself (“a hippie commune label, seeking to make its artists co-owners/profit sharers so that everyone will help each other succeed”), forthcoming album Count Bateman represents a shift in the Frog landscape. With drummer/vocalist White moving to London, Bateman found himself without a job, a drummer and the security of a tried and tested recording process. The change, however jarring, did nothing to halt the Frog train, Bateman taking it upon himself to learn new instruments and to work alone, using the opportunity to push his sound outside of the previous borders into something sunnier, more Californian.
Bateman bought a 1979 MX5050 tape machine from one of The Antlers, transforming the practicalities of the recording process further. “Making a record on analog tape is completely different,” Bateman explains. “What you play into the machine is way different than what comes back out, which is both terrifying and really fun.” Upon reading an interview where Elliott Smith mentioned the woman who recorded S/T, Bateman reached out to the person to find out exactly what was used, trying to recreate the set-up. “It obviously sounds way worse and much different, but only because he’s a genius and a monster. I basically only have a willingness to sound like an idiot, but I think it came out pretty well.”
However, no matter how different the record might sound, this is still assuredly Frog. Different gear, a member down, no longer confined to Queens and still the spirit remains, that boundless energy determined to orbit closer and closer to whatever it means to be an American. That Frog is constantly changing, borrowing different influences and styles and geographic inspiration, only strengthens such a quest, living as we are through a time of nebulous identity, where ‘American’ means everything and nothing. “I really would’ve liked there to be someone else to bounce ideas off of while making this, but it was pretty interesting to wear all the hats,” Bateman says. “I’d say making records alone is a little lonely, and you have to play the part of different people to keep it interesting. Sometimes you have to be Fred Astaire, sometimes you have to be Fred Flintstone. Sometimes Rihanna, other times Rachmaninoff. Hopefully at the end it sounds like you.”
Today, we’re lucky enough to be sharing a brand new single a few weeks before the album is released. ‘It’s Something I Do’ is a love song told from the aftermath, an admission of continued longing from amid the wreckage of things. “That’s right, it’s broken and you can’t get back together,” Bateman sings, but the understanding does nothing to change the situation. “That’s right I’m fucked up and it can’t get any better / There’s something in the rough cuts and it makes you can’t forget her.” For all experience and evidence to the contrary, the dream persists. “I’m thinking of you, it’s something I do.”
